This blog is more than just a journal of my crazy, meaningless and confused existence in San Francisco, as a writer, a comedian and just a lover of all things even remotely pleasurable. No, it is much, much more than that, my little friends. In this blog, I will tell you most of my thoughts, some of my concerns, and several of my issues and dreams -- and anyone who is even slightly interested will hopefully be intrigued enough to read this -- this -- thing I call LIFE ON THE EDGE.

Friday, January 02, 2009

When I do these postings sometimes, they ask me to write about things that I know little about. It's difficult to write something and sound knowledgeable when you aren't familiar with the subject. Like this posting, for instance. They asked me to write about bearings. What the heck do I know about bearings? Very little. So, I ask myself--how would the great Ernest Hemingway write about bearings? What would the legendary writer find interesting and intriguing about bearings? Bearings, as far as I know, help things turn--such as wheels and conveyors and many of the moving parts found in automobiles. Would Hemingway be able to capture all this in approximately 60 words? If he could, he's a better man than I!

Toyota, who’s Prius is the most popular car on the hybrid market today, is upping the “clean and green” ante with a new vehicle in development that will run partially on the sun’s rays. They will also start the long-range development of a car that will run solely on solar. Both vehicles will take several years to design and build, but the sun will be around for awhile, so it’s a win-win.

Sales of the Prius are still huge, but not as high as they were last summer when gas prices spiked through the roof. Here in San Francisco where I live, pro-green residents gobbled up Priuses like jelly bellies or iPods. I saw a guy the other day trying to open the door of what he thought was his Prius, until he noticed that his (same color and year) was parked a few spots over.

Consequently, a lot of Prius customization companies are cropping up all over the country -- so that owners can distinguish their Prius from all the others out on the road.Toyota should be praised for announcing this new endeavor. If only the Big 3 would get on the solar bandwagon – with real projects rather than lip service. And people wonder why Japan is kicking our derrieres when it comes to selling cars!

I saw this yesterday in the Nikkei News:

TOKYO —Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported today.The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota’s offices were closed today and officials were not immediately available for comment.According to the Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicle, the newspaper said without citing sources.The solar car is part of efforts by Japan’s top automaker to grow during hard times, the Nikkei said.In December, Toyota stunned the nation by announcing it will slip into its first operating loss in 70 years, as it gets battered by a global slump, especially in the key U.S. market. The surging yen has also hurt the earnings of Japanese automakers.Still, Toyota is a leader in green technology and executives have stressed they won’t cut back on environmental research despite its troubles.Toyota, the manufacturer of the Lexus luxury car and Camry sedan, has already begun using solar panels at its Tsutsumi plant in central Japan to produce some of its own electricity.The solar panels on the roofs add up in size to the equivalent of 60 tennis courts and produce enough electricity to power 500 homes, according to Toyota. That reduces 740 tons a year of carbon dioxide emissions and is equal to using 1,500 barrels of crude oil.Toyota is also likely to indirectly gain expertise in solar energy when its partner in developing and producing hybrid batteries, Panasonic Corp., takes over Japanese rival Sanyo Electric Co., a leader in solar energy, early next year.